From Pittsburgh to Austin to Baltimore, my work is finding its way to new galleries.
2017 has been a nonstop blur of activity, including participation in several group shows around the US. Each exhibition booked thus far is listed below, but I have the most to say about Wall Paintings: Storytellers because, well, I spent eight hours making my piece on the actual gallery wall. The group show of local artists was curated by Robert Raczka, a gentleman I met while installing a drawing on the taxidermy cases in Bird Hall of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Getting the obvious sense that I enjoy making art on non-traditional surfaces, Robert asked if I would be interested in contributing to this show, which is up at SPACE in downtown Pittsburgh through September 3.
For this exhibition, I wanted to stay with the same theme that Robert first associated with me – birds and natural history. I was fortunate to get a spot in the gallery close to the front window, which was perfect for my painted illustration of the problem of bird-window collisions. Here’s a sequence of progress shots as the painting unfolded:
As gallery visitors rolled in, it was encouraging to hear people ask about solutions to the problem and taking photos of the artwork to save the BirdSafe Pittsburgh website for reference. I explained some of the volunteer opportunities with BirdSafe Pittsburgh and directed them to websites where they find a list of products available for installation on their own windows to prevent the problem as well as my own bird-safe window films.
And for kicks, this is me early on in the process before I was sweating profusely in the summer heat with swollen ankles. As it turns out, being seven months pregnant is not a comfortable time to be on your feet all day. Being that the event was such an enormous success, it was all well worth it.
But Wall Paintings was only one of four shows for me this year. Here are the others I have/had the honor of contributing one or more of my BirdSafe Pittsburgh-inspired paintings on paper:
Life As We Knew It, Art.Science.Gallery, Austin, TX, May 2017
Birdland and the Anthropocene, the Peale Center, Baltimore, MD, October 6- 29, 2017